As I mentioned in my last post, I ended up back in England in February for almost 3 weeks so I could finish up my dissertation fieldwork... okay, and there *may* have been some visiting of friends and drinking of beer in there as well. :) I interviewed all the people I had hoped to - and more! - as well as got all of my follow-up observations done at the Hunterian Museum, so it was definitely a success overall. My travels took me from London, to Exeter, to Glastonbury, over to Cardiff, and then back to London. Definitely a whirlwind in that space of time, and I froze in all the poorly insulated buildings (it made my overly-warm flat in Canada look incredibly appealing!), but I'm so thankful I had that time with people I care about abroad, and in a land that I truly love. It was definitely a working holiday, but it was also fabulous.
I had a bit of a personal crisis when I came back to Canada, and that was essentially my March... I won't go into details, and it wasn't an easy time, but I got through it, and I'm definitely stronger for it. And it made me realise how amazing my friends are, because they were so, so there for me. One of my friends texted me tonight, and he commented that he loved looking at my FB profile because "there are lots of people that love you". And he's right. Sometimes, in the isolating and weird world of PhD-dom, I feel incredibly lonely. But when I really think about it, even in those moments, I am overwhelmed by how blessed I am to have such fine folk in my life. You know who you are. (big hugs!)
Before I really begin writing in earnest, however, I am taking a long overdue trip out to Calgary to see family and friends next weekend. It's been two years this summer since I made it out to that side of Canada, and I'm excited to see my dad and brother again. And, if the weather holds out, dad and I are going to make a quick trip out to Vancouver, which means I'll get to see my mum and a couple of friends, too! I know that I likely won't get much work done, and maybe that's okay. It would be nice to have real, proper break for two full weeks. Especially before I have knee surgery - and nope, I still don't have a date set for it yet. argh.
As you likely gathered from the title, though, I've also been playing pretty hard the past couple of weeks. Lots of gym time (still making great progress on my squatting, despite the knee!), plus a few crazy parties here and there that included a formal dance that the master's level students in our faculty organised (a bunch of us PhDers crashed it :), and the Feminist Porn Awards last night. I've never been to anything quite like it - and porn isn't something I'm really into, just to clarify! - but I think encouraging films in that genre which seek to empower women (rather than objectify them), represent a huge range of diverse peoples who don't normally appear in that type of media, and which cater to the female and/or queer gaze, is all pretty awesome. It was also, of course, a great excuse to get dressed up in one of the beautiful corsets I've picked up in London. :)And on that note, after a quiet Saturday night at home, I'm off to sleep.
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